1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a transport apparatus that includes a transfer roller unit having a drive transport roller and a driven transport roller to transport a transported medium to a downstream side of a transport direction, a driven roller holder rotatably holding the driven transport roller, a support member supporting the driven roller holder and allowing it to swing, and a load applying resilient member applying a load to the driven transport roller by being resiliently deformed in a direction along which the driven transport roller approaches the drive transport roller, and a recording apparatus including the transport apparatus.
The recording apparatus includes an inkjet printer, a wire dot printer, a laser printer, a line printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and the like.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, as disclosed in JP-A-2008-074605, a transport apparatus provided in a recording apparatus includes a transport roller unit having a drive transport roller and a driven transport roller. The driven transport roller is rotatably held by a support frame as a driven roller holder. The support frame is supported by an attaching frame as a support member which allows it to swing. Moreover, the transport apparatus includes a coil spring as a load applying resilient member to urge the support frame in a direction along which the driven transport roller approaches the drive transport roller using the urging force of the coil spring.
Specifically, one end arm of the coil spring comes in contact with a driven roller shaft on which the driven transport roller is mounted to urge the driven transport roller. Meanwhile, the opposite end arm of the coil spring engages with the attaching frame. That is, the attaching frame receives the opposite end arm of the resiliently deformed coil spring to urge the driven transport roller so that the driven transport roller can approach the drive transport roller on the side of the end arm of the coil spring. Therefore, a transport force can be applied to the paper held between the drive transport roller and the driven transport roller to transport the paper to a recording section on the downstream side of the transport direction.
However, there is a need to make the shape of the recording apparatus thinner and the height of the attaching frame shorter. Here, since the attaching frame directly engages with the opposite end arm of the coil spring, a large force is applied to the attaching frame. Therefore, when the height of the attaching frame is made short, the attaching frame may be bent and deformed.
Further, since the attaching frame as a support member holds the support frame as a driven roller holder, the relative position between the driven transport roller and the drive transport roller as well as the alignment of the driven transport roller may be unstable. As a result, the transport precision of the paper may be unstable.
Although the attaching frame needs to be made thicker to prevent deformation, the weight of the attaching frame also increases as its thickness increases.